By Kwin Israel, The Sight News
The Director General/CEO National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) Nura Sani Kangiwa, has said the Institute is poised to promote Nigeria’s culture worldwide through its skillful art of appreciating and exposing our foods, cooking, culinary skills and cuisine to the hospitality and tourism occupational trades and the general public.
Kangiwa, who said this at the day three of the 2024 NIHOTOUR Gastronomy festival food and beverages exhibition, noted that to achieve this, it would ensure to keep with the spirit of exposing and promoting the works of trained competencies with quality assurance and standards as this is germane to achieving the Institute’s mandate.
“As the UN Tourism and UN Food Organisation put it, Gastronomy is the art of food. It is a style of cooking from a particular locality and region from food and cuisine. Sustainability is the way that is not wasteful of our natural resources and can be continued into the future without being detrimental to our environment or health.
“With the above statement, we appreciate the gastronomy product value chains where the food crop is sourced, farmed, cultivated, transported, warehoused, merchandised, marketed and supplied to the food and beverage producers, served and eventually plated on the table to be consumed.
“This further explains fully the theme of this year’s festival. To this end, our goal is to collectively shape the future of Nigeria gastronomy tourism, emphasizing its potential to empower local communities and foster rural development and socio-economic growth as all strategic priorities outlined in the UN Tourism Agenda for Africa – Tourism for Inclusive Growth”.
In his goodwill message, the Ambassador of Spain to Nigeria, Dr Juan Ignacro Sell, while congratulating NIHOTOUR for organizing an ever bigger and better gastronomy, in his words said that “Gastronomy is important for all of us as it can be crucial for identity, it can even become a tool for international dialogue and it is definitely key for tourism promotion.
“Nigeria is blessed with a very wonderful and diverse cuisine, gastronomy, and you shouldn’t keep it for yourselves or for ourselves or for us residents in this beautiful country but share it with the world and this is something that we could do by organizing this very important event”.
Also, the Cultural Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, Li Xuda, while giving his goodwill message said “In 2016, the UN General Assembly designated June 18” as an international observance for Sustainable Gastronomy Day. That’s really a great decision which acknowledges gastronomy as a cultural expression related to the natural and cultural diversity of the world.
“We’re aware that food culture is an important part of our culture. Lots of people know that China and Nigeria are well-known for their splendid culture, they have so many similarities in many fields, including the field of gastronomy. Since both countries have vast land and abundant resources, each region has a different climate and agricultural products.
“Our food culture has formed since ancient times and has already been deeply rooted in our traditional culture. The rapid social development in recent decades has laid a solid foundation for China and Nigeria’s food culture. On this solid foundation, I’m convinced that in the future, our food culture will be better developed, our people’s living standard will be further improved, and our two countries’ sustainable development will be greatly promoted”, he added.
While declaring the 2024 NIHOTOUR Gastronomy festival open, the Minister of Tourism, Lola Ade-John, who was represented by her Special Assistant on policy, Jibike Teniola, said in line with the theme of the event, “Sustainable Food Production From Farm To Table”, the message to all of us is to eat healthy, to eat fresh and to eat devoid of preservatives and live longer.
The event is aimed to deliberately expose the professionally trained food and beverage production and service expertise and their wide array of prepared flavours of rich ancestral traditions that enriches the global gastronomic landscape, foster stronger community bonds and promote Nigerian culture worldwide.
